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The mobile app stores are dealing with the app cloning problem at last, it seems. Earlier this week, “Flappy Bird” creator Dong Nguyen released the sequel to his insanely popular, but frustrating game, which had once led to dozens upon dozens clones from developers hoping to cash in on the trend. With Nguyen’s new game, “Swing Copters,” the cloners quickly returned, soon filling the app stores with similarly named titles – in Google Play’s case, some games even claimed to be developed by Nguyen himself, but were actually rip-offs.

And then something interesting happened: the clones disappeared.

“Swing Copters,” in case you missed it, is very much inspired by the original “Flappy Bird.” That is, it’s a simply designed, addictive, but unexpectedly difficult game which this time involves navigating a helicopter-man through gates blocked by swinging hammers, instead of navigating a small bird up and down in between Super Mario-esque green pipes.

As of the time of writing, “Swing Copters” is the #5 free app on the iTunes App Store. (It’s not well-ranked on Google Play, at #191 in the “Arcade” section.)

Like “Flappy Bird,” the new game was also easy to clone. And since doing so has been a successful endeavor for many developers in recent months, quite a few imitation apps were launched this week.

Cloning has become a problem as of late on all the app stores. In fact, the “Flappy Bird” situation became so bad at one point that the app stores even began rejecting some games that used “Flappy” in their titles. Even the Pebble smartwatch app store hosted a “Flappy Bird” clone.

And the cloning problem – or “fast follow” as it’s known in developer-speak – hasn’t just affected the silly, viral apps like “Flappy Bird,” which sort of fall into the so-good-they’re-bad group, it has also caused problems for more serious app developers who spent time and put thought into their original titles only to see them ripped off in a matter of days. For example, the popular and thoughtfully designed game “Threes,” a paid app, was copied by clones like “1024,” “2048,” and others, which offered users a free version, eating away at potential “Threes” downloads and revenue.

One could even argue that Facebook itself is a fan of the fast follow, having heavily borrowed concepts popularized by competing social apps when releasing its own versions, like the Taptalk-inspired Bolt and Slingshot apps, the Flipboard-inspired Facebook Paper, and many more.

But now it looks like the app stores are trying to do something about the cloning problem. Just look at iTunes, right now, for instance:

A search for “Swing Copters” delivers the original title in spot #1, and while the store isn’t totally clone-less (three other results in the top five are clones), it’s arguably better than it’s been in days past. We’re working to confirm whether or not Apple is actively reject “Swing Copters” clones before they go live, or whether they’re getting pulled after the fact, but it’s clear that some sort of action has been taken. There’s simply no way developers only submitted their dozens upon dozens of clones to Google Play. [UPDATE: We’re hearing the clones are being caught and rejected during the Apple review process.]

Meanwhile, Google Play has also been cleaned up.

Though it usually fares worse in cloning situations because of its more open app publishing policies, it appears that Google has actually stepped in and swept its store of clones. Hundreds of clones have been pulled from Google Play, which before had pushed the official version out of the top 50 entirely. (Google doesn’t comment on individual apps).

There is, however, some weirdness still going on. This is not the “Swing Copters,” for instance:

Gaming site Polygon noticed how badly “Swing Copters” was being cloned on Google Play this week, and argued that the platform makers themselves didn’t care about the problem because “they get paid regardless,” and most users don’t deal with the hassles of trying to request refunds.

But apparently, the platform makers are taking a stand against app cloning – at least in high-profile cases like this. Perhaps they know that a quality app store – one where users aren’t scammed and tricked – is something that matters after all.

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CrunchBase

DescriptionSwing Copters is the newest game from Flappy Birds creator Dong Nguyen. Utilizing similar retro graphics and play style, this game features more difficult obstacles that are not static as they were in Flappy Bird. Instead, these obstacles are swinging left to right, which players must avoid while rising vertically in the map.

BioDong Nguyen, is a Vietnam-based developer and programmer who is best known for creating the popular mobile game called Flappy Bird, which eventually rooted to countless more games after its deletion in 2014. He works for the company, .GEARS (dotGears) studios, which specializes in creating simple retro pixelated games rather than the more complex ones seen today.
Flappy Bird was said to be developed …

DescriptionUpon its release, Flappy Bird became one of the most popular game on the Internet. It is a simple one-button game in which you have to navigate the bird arbitrarily generated in a variety of colors past the Super Mario-esque green pipe obstacles. You do this by clicking your mouse repeatedly. Each time you click, the bird flies up. Don't make it fly too high or it will die. This means you have …